Reporting and opining upon political and scientific occurrences of interest to me, The Phantom.
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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Doc-in-a-box, next level.

Popping up all over the place are mini-clinics, where people with minor ailments go to see a doctor. In the industry they are referred to as doc-in-a-box clinics. The operational notion is that -any- doc is as good as any other doc for a first visit. Industrial medical model in all its glory.

But the most radical bit of the concept is the self-driving car. What may appear to be a gimmick is actually a carefully designed space. "The vehicle provides an in-between space," says Jordan. It's like a CVS Minute Clinic on wheels, with a patient self-directed as to what to do next via software–cutting down on the staffing costs behind routine measurements often gathered by nurses. "You can take the model of a patient going to Walgreens and doing the automated pressure cuff," says Jordan.The floor automatically weighs you when you walk in. Its pressure sensitivity can measure BMI, and posture, too. The chair has built-in acoustic sensors, which hear your respiration like a stethoscope. And a wraparound screen provides augmented reality interactions, to guide the patient through the experience. They may even be asked to literally point to where it hurts.

No doctor. Not even a nurse. Just a fully automated diagnostic suite that will (presumably) be able to tell if you are actually sick, and put a band-aid on your booboo.

You are not a human being, you are a billable unit. Shut up and get in the box.

They are going to build this. You can tell, there's such excitement over the notion of a hands-free diagnostic service where they can bill you and they don't have to talk to you. Most important, they don't have to pay a doctor.